Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓
Apple Meringue
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel, quarter, and core the apples. Stew them in an enamelled saucepan with sugar and cinnamon until tender, keeping the quarters whole.
Pour the cooked apples into a pudding dish.
Make the meringue
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add sugar and lemon zest, continuing to beat until well combined.
Spread the meringue over the apples in the dish.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the meringue is well browned.
Serve hot or allow to cool and serve with cream.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,147 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Soften when stewed and provide the fruit base and tart flavor under the meringue.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that sets and forms the browned meringue topping.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and the meringue, and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to a firm foam before sugar is added gradually. Under-beaten whites won't hold their shape, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy, so the meringue may collapse or weep while baking.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, egg, sauce, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, egg, sauce, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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